Well this week defintely went better then last week. I mean
the whole finding out about Micahel Jackson dying was pretty
rough but we got through it. A lot of people in Ghana were
pretty devestated that he died. It was pretty pathetic. It
rained everyday this week which made finding new people
a little difficult. It was pretty sweet though we were able to
get just under 30 lessons this week. Though it dumped buckets
on Sunday and several people couldn't or wouldn't leave their
homes cause of the rain.

The Ghanaian reaction to rain, or pretty much anything is
to "rest". Basically just fall asleep cause they have an excuse.
We had a sweet baptism on Saturday. Frank Asumah, a 9 yr
old boy(yep baptizing children) was baptized for our companionship
with six others. Frank is funny. We were teaching his grandparents
and he always would join and eventually told us he believed
Jesus would want him baptized, so we did. Now his little brother,
Tony, wants to be baptized. He turns 8 this month so that
will be cool. Today we went to the Accra Mall to look at cameras.
That was not really too terrific but man being there was. It felt
way out of place for Ghana. Elder Hortin and I bought a pizza
from their food court, yeah that's right FOOD court. Afterward
on the trotro ride home we both commented that it really upset
our stomachs, but that it was so worth it it. Little pieces of heaven
for sure. Last night Elder Hortin and I stayed up till like 1 am
talking about life, mission, and a lot about America since it will be
the 4th. It definitely makes you appreciate our freedoms and
privileges that we have as Americans. Well love everybody, peace out!

Well not going to lie this has been quite possibly the hardest
week that I have ever had, and it was even only my 7 month
mark. Lots of downs and not too many ups. First off I will no
longer be able to send pictures. Unfortunately someone
decided that they needed it more then me. After that our
apartment got broken into and trashed. That sucked to clean
up and see other stuff that went missing. I guess someone else
needed that stuff more then me too. Uh after that my bike
( too bad it wasn't stolen ) decided it wanted to quit as we were
riding down a hill. Had a little tumble but it was cool I at least
stopped before rolling into the river that is made from all the
sewer run off. Yeah that was basically all the stuff that was a slap
in the face.

We were able to get our baptism taken care of on Saturday. So
John, Louis, and Nathaniel were able to be baptized. It was sweet
to get to baptize Nat. He is a 20 year old college student and is
just a sweet guy. Kind of could see if were both were just going to
school we'd go hang out. It was funny because the guy from the
ward who was suppose to baptize them called and said his wife
was sick and couldn't come. So I got to do it, wearing little kids
clothes. All the baptismal clothes were in use due to our baptism
being combined with another ward. I even let Louis wear the
clothes I have so it was really funny to look at myself in the
mirror.

One other thing is that due to the high percentage of Muslims
in my area I randomly started to pick up on the language they
speak. It is similar to Arabic. It is called Hauser or Hausa, no one
here knows how to spell it either so I'm okay. It is pretty cool.
So now I can basically hold a basic conversation( greeting, name,
where they live, etc.) in Twi, Ga, Fante, and now Hauser.
Hopefully I can become somewhat proficient in them. It was sweet
on Sunday too as we started Sacrament meeting with no
investigators present and then they started marching in during
the hymn and prayer. Most of them credited the rain slowing
them down and that they would have gotten there eventually.
It was nice to see them though. To be honest that is about all I
have for the week. It was kind of a downer but when you get
kicked down the best thing to do is get up and act like it didn't
hurt and get on with it. Good luck to everybody.

Elder G

Pictures

This picture shows Zongo Lacka, Mexico, and part of Asensu Bar.

Tried getting a picture to show how dirty we got but all I got was
a picture showing our BRIGHT yellow walls and my sweet Realtree
Camo hat I bought for two dollars this week from a guy I contacted.

My new apartment. I think we have a sweet bachelor pad for sure

Imagine this over and over and that is how a lot of my area
looks. This is one of the bigger and cleaner ones though.

This is out at the reservoir

Quail Eggs. Would of bought them but they were like 6 Cedis
for that little can. Forget yourself.

One of our appointments fell through and this kid was
riding a sweet pink barbie bike. So I asked him if I
could take it for a spin.

These are some little kids that were looking at us and so
I took a picture of them. They freaked out and ran away.

Fish being prepared to be fried. I just like how there
is a sting ray among them. Can you spot it?

The fish after being fried, I'd rather eat it sushi style I think

Some of the fields that are out there. Nice to get away from the city

This is a church house. As you can tell they believe they

receive revelation. Even dated and timed it

This is the door to my room.

Same door

This is the door into the other missionaries room.

Close up of door.

A different view. This shows mostly Asensu Bar from
a hill that is a part called Jericho.

Back to the MTC

This last week I did something pretty interesting. I went back
to the MTC. Yeah it was definitely a trip! Lots of memories came
back as I went to my old room and just basically the whole
compound. It was cool because we got a free ride back to
Ashaiman in a flat bed truck. The guy thought it was funny
three white guys all asked him where he was going in Twi so
he told us to hop in. Tuesday was sweet pa pa! We went to
the temple for our zone interview with our mission president.
I love to see the temple and am definitely going there
someday . . . again. It was very refreshing. Though that
morning we woke up to about 2 inches of water in our room.
Our toliet tank started filling and never stopped and our
room is the lowest part in the apartment.

Elder Riding got a package and it had BIG HUNKS in it and
he hates them. Lucky for me I was able to find it in my heart
to take them off his hands. This week I had my first
converstaion soley in Twi. I greeted someone, asked them
where they were going, where they lived, and if they wanted
us to come back and visit them. After that I make sure
during our contacting I speak English so that we don't go
to the house and find out they speak only Twi. Yeah. This
week we had a lot of people start coming to us with rumours
about the church. Like that we drink blood and use dead
bodies for baptisms ( that one comes from members who
have apostated ). It was pretty funny afterward to go over
the things with my comp.

We met a man named Martin Luther Narh. He invited us to
his house and when we got there he, his wife, his sister, his
brother, his mother, and towards the end of the lesson his
other brother were involved. It was really sweet because as
we told the Joseph Smith story it was sweet to see them actually
taking it in and PONDERING it. It was great as Martin came to
church and afterwards asked for a teachings of Joseph Smith and
said that he was testing the church out and for us to expect the
family next week. I was pretty excited so hopefully they progress.
I have been trying to learn how to make fried rice that is quality.
This week I think is the closest I have gotten to it being
very edible. I am pretty excited to have that much more variety.
It was really funny this week too as we were teaching this guy
who owns a barbershop, and yes he has like 4 or 5 friends who
just hang out there all day. We were using the pamphlets and in
the middle of us alking about Christ and his church he stops us
and tells us the pamphlets were wrong. That we shouldn't have
a picture of anyone besides Christ because that is who it is all
about. Elder Riding started to try and explain about how it isn't
as if we worship the pictures and what not was getting anywhere.
So I just was like Richard (guy we were teaching) it is okay, I'll
write a letter to THE people and have them sort it out. He was
so pacified he just nodded his head and very seriously said
thank you.

I contacted this blonde blue eyed german girl this week. She
is 20 and works for a NGO. First white girl I have seen in about
oh . . . 3 months I think. She was pretty cool, she knows the
church in Germany and was surprise to run into two whites that
are in Ghana. I think it would be sweet to teach and baptize her
so I can say I baptized a white person on my mission, weird oh.
I was contacting in an area known as Zongo Lacka and contacted
a group of about 7 or 8 older men. They were muslism and I
learned a lot of what they believe and some stuff about Islam.
It was pretty interesting. I tried talking about Joseph Smith but
they wouldn't have it so we discussed about how Allah and God
are the same. It was weird because even though there are the
examples of like Aaron in the Book of Mormon I felt a little
unprepared for it. Definitely have some work to do. Saturday
I was soaked. The rain just was a drizzle all day but we ended
up getting lost on a way to one of our appointments in a certain
area that is very far. We rode basically for 60 mins and found
out that is the border of our area and this man's new house isn't
in our area. We rode another 20mins got to his house and taught
him and told him we can't teach him anymore but will be giving
him to other missionaries. I was worried because he didn't
seem too happy about it. We'll see how it plays out.

I was covered in mud and what not from the ride though and
was in a pretty bad attitude after having the appointment go
sour. It was all made better as because of the uh way my bike
is and the water I had a tro-tro stop in front of me and when
I tried to stop it didn't work. My back brakes don't exist and
my front cable came undone and I went into the back of the
tro-tro. All the people laughed at the white kid pressed up
against the glass and the driver just walked around, insulted
me, got back in, and drove away. I felt like a champion . . . or not.
On Sunday we weren't having too many people really interested
in talking to us so we did some service. We went into a
compound and a lady and her sister were pounding fufu so
we did it for them. We basically had to beg for them to let us
help them out. They didn't think we could do it and after they
saw we could called their friends and everyone to watch. It
was cool. My companion was pounding it while I drove.
When you drive you scoop the fufu into a ball that the person
pounding flattens with a big stick to soften it and mix the
ingredients. It ended pretty quickly after my companion and
I got off on our timing and he hit my wrist. We kind of just
gave it back to them. Wow I just looked at how long this email
is and SHEESH it was a busy week. Hope this finds everyone
doing great!

This past week has been pretty sweet. A lot of the week was
somehow rainy and overcast which basically rocked! We
went and taught the father of the Asumah family, he is
pretty much the only one not baptized. It was cool to be
teaching the Law of Chasity and have him already know
everything because his wife and (grand)son taught him
before we came. Definitely love it when the members will
take a bit of time and help us out. We went to this
reservoir in our area that is one of the borders. It is a
sweet ride because as you go out there it is by the agriculture
lands so it is just fields. Nice to get away from the dirty city.

There was one day that after it had rained the sun came out
and made it like an oven. We were teaching this security
guard at a public shower house and he asked if we could
stop the lesson because the whole time Elder Riding and
I were sweating so bad we were dripping on the pamphlet
we were using to introduce The Restoration. A lot of the
Ghanaians love to TRY and guess ages I guess. We had a
few of our visits were it was my first time of people
wanting to guess my age. The overall average is between
23-26ish. Mostly because I talk like someone here that has
gone to university and is finished with school. We also had
the kid army following us. All of these little kids would see
us and basically follow us from appointment to appointment
because they liked the fact we were white. It didn't help at
all when we told them to leave in twi, they just liked us
more because we can speak their language small.

Something that was very interesting this week is that we
had a companionship fast. On the day of our fast it was really
tough. Appointments kept dropping, or the ones that went
through the people weren't paying attention or being serious
about anything we were sharing. All of that on top of being
hungry made me a little irritated. I started acting like I
didn't speak English to people who called us obruni obruni!
(white man/foreigner) I started answering in spanish. Yeah
luckily they didn't know how to react and left me alone.
The thing that was really sweet about our fast was the day
after. It seemed as if everything was working our way on
the day after. Especially because the first two lessons we
had to start the day off were just great. Good spirit and
participation. The entire day just went sweet. Definitely
a faith building day as we could feel the people we were
teaching being touched by the Holy Ghost. Basically made
me pretty happy.

I also learned that Northern people are really primitive.
They are very tribal. Enough that when they see white
people they basically think the person is Jesus Christ.
That is why missionaries have never been
sent to the north. I started wearing sunglasses while
proselyting this last week. That makes it not as bad, I
squint a lot less and notice more things. We had a baptism
on Saturday. The guy that was for our companionship is
named Robert Addae. He is a 20yr old college student
and way cool. I guess he didn't quite start out like it but
by the time I met with him the two three times before
he was baptized he was golden. His enthusiasm was
probably one of the things I noticed the most.

That same day we went to visit another guy named Louis
Poku who is part of the baptism we are planning for the
20th. He is staying at his sister's as his visa was revoked
to return to Italy where his wife and kids live as he on the
plane at the airport preparing for takeoff. Anyway his
sister's kid was circumcised like Wednesday or something.
Definitely looks painful and I'm glad I don't remember it.
What was funny was the kid was just laying on coffee table
and while we were there he would pee and it was like a
fountain. It was even funnier when Louis told us that same
thing happened but the kid pee-ed on his laptop. Yeah bad
luck oh.

I started making my own fried rice this week. Not as good as
I can buy on the street but it has potential. Church was a
little tense. We were expecting several people and by the
time the sacrament was passed only one had showed up.
Lucky for us the other 4 people showed up which was a
relief since that will keep us on track to baptize them in this
transfer cycle to fulfill the goal Elder Riding set. Everyone
in the apartment loves the Missionary Newsletter and wishes
their stake did something like it. I told them come to Taylor,
we just hook people up like that.

So my mistake but I horribly misspelled Ashaiman. <---- That is
the correct way. It is really close to Tema. In fact right now I'm
in Tema using a cafe that a member owns. It was really weird
about saying goodbye to everyone in Lartebiokorshie. I hadn't been
there for very long but I did feel pretty close to some of the
people. Especially the Ansah Family. It was bad luck that I missed
out on seeing Cindy getting a baptized but haukuna matah? I
did spend some quality time on Tuesday teaching the two guys
basically a crash couse in Mission Prep. That was pretty interesting.


To get to my new area on Wednesday we go to the Mission Home
and meet up with someone from our new area. I met up with Elder
Hortin. One of the missionaries I was at the MTC with. We took a
taxi to the Kufor (ex-president) Bus Station. Imagine really
crappy greyhounds painted super bright orange. Yeah took one
of those to Ashaiman and from there took a taxi to our new
apartment. I didn't meet my companion right away he was out
teaching a lesson with a ward missionary. After he came back
there was only small time left to go out prosleyting. Elder Riding
took me around and mostly just showed me a few people who live
near the apartment. The apartment is really nice. There are four
elders there. One thing that is really cool are the doors in our
apartment. They are very well carved. In my new area there are
a ton of people. They are basically building on top of each other now.
It is nice but at the same time they yell OBRUNI OBRUNI!!!! a
thousand times a day and it sometimes gets on my nerves. I am
just like yes I'm white, your powers of observation amaze me.
Except they don't really get sarcasm here so they just get confused.

Saturday it started to rain about 2:30 in the morning and didn't
stop till about noon. It was nice as it turned the road in front of
our apartment into a river. Elder Riding is pretty legit. He
speaks very very excellent twi. Also he can cook almost all the
ghanaian dishes, at least the ones worth eating. He is from Payson,
Utah.

My area now seems to be a really nice place. Lots of people and
what not. A few of the people I've met seem to be really serious.
Hopefully they stay that way!

love Elder Gibson

I'm all shiny and don't know why.

What can I say kids and I connect, maybe because
we are on the same maturity level.

This was on Grandma Lila's birthday.
Drank a coke for her.

MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY!!! Okay so it really isn't
that exciting but I do what I can. Last week when I went
to play sports at this place called Kaneshie I got a little sunburnt.
It worked out all good though because now even my legs are
at least not blinding white. Wednesday I had something interesting
happen. A lady's son received his mission call to go to the Ghana
Cape Coast Mission. She called us and wanted us to come talk to
the guy about his girlfriend. I guess his brother got in trouble with
a girl before he left and something. She wanted to make sure it
didn't happen again. It all felt a little awkward mostly because this
family doesn't go to our ward and we really didn't know what was
going on. The lady did feed us though. Even though it was like oily
collard greens with some other uh things with them it was food.
That same night we went to the Ansah family, father and son
baptized last week, to teach the wife. She accepted a baptismal
date and will be baptized this thursday(28th).

Two kids from this ward going on their missions in August
together. The taller one is Robert and he is going to Nigeria.
The shorter one is Matthew and he is going to the Ghana
Cape Coast Mission.

On Thursday we had a Mission Conference with the General
Authority being Jay E. Jensen. It was really good. He talked
about mastering the scriptures alot. It was interesting to listen
to him talk about the different study patterns of people. I
wanted to laugh when he started name dropping. Like Boyd
K. Packer, David A. Bednar, Thomas S. Monson. Guy is serious.
I guess go figure what else would apostles talk about while
traveling places then how they study? He also urged us to
start singing hymns when we go to teach people. That there
isn't anything that can invite the spirit faster. Overall it was
really good. That same night we had a baptism. We had one
man, Matthew Tay, being baptized. It was cool because his
daughter came and agreed to allow us to teach her. Usually
when we've gone to the house she wouldn't join us because she
has her church. She is 11. Starting them young I guess. At the
baptism as a musical number the 8 missionaries from our
apartment all sang I Am a Child of God. After the baptism
another one of the candidates was having a party and so we
went and ate. They kept bringing us plates of rice. That is how
they judge parties here, how good and how much is the food.
I can't believe that everyone graduated this week. It definitely
does not feel as if I've been out of High School a year already.
Then again I've also been on my mission for six months.
Guess time marches on.

My going away dinner from the
Ansah Family. Doesn't it look tasty?


My companion's reaction. (ghanaian)

My reaction to the food. (american) and yes I cut my
own hair, thank you very much.

This week is transfers. In our apartment we have 5 leaving. 2 are
going home and 3 are moving on. A little surprising is that I'll be
leaving. My new area is called Ashiaman. It is close to Tema where
the MTC is. My new companion is American which is rare to have.
A lot of whites go their whole mission without serving with
another. His name is Elder Riding and he is from Payson, Utah.
That is about all I know of the guy. I guess wait till Wednesday
and we'll see. On Sunday on our way to go and make sure someone
was coming to church we ran into a ward member, Sis. Anderson,
whose husband and two kids were sick. We went to their house
and gave them all blessings. It was awesome that we randomly
were just in the right place at the right time to help her out.

My apartment for the last month a half. I slept right
by the second window.

This is the Ansah Family. Going from Right to left. Me, Nana (son),
Cindy (mother), Two sisters, Alex (father), My companion

You have discovered the most frustrating cultural thing
about Ghanaians. They will straight up lie to your face of
whether they are interested or not. They think if they
say no that they'll have to explain themselves and there
will be a big ordeal so they lie and say yes and then sit
there and will nod their heads as you teach. It is so
annoying. One guy just straight up told me he wasn't
interested. I shook his hand and said thank you. It is
something that we have a problem with is finding those
who really are serious. I guess you guys are going to
start getting hotter then it is here pretty soon. I
love you guys and wish you the best for this next week!

I've still got a few skills left

A snapshot from out sweet celebration on the roof
with our bonfire we used to make s'mores!

Love Elder Gibson